EXTENDED WRITING- How does a

photographer manipulate the

landscape?
 How does a photographer manipulate landscapes? Photographers
manipulate landscapes showing how other stories can be told from just one photograph and how
hidden subjects which maybe one has never seen or thought about can be toyed around in one
person's imagination and how they see the world just from the one photograph being manipulated
to then seeing the world or area of a landscape differently.

The first photographer which fits and helps with my investigation is Coldwar Steve. The

representation of politics and the politician's in his view are quite

humorous as he takes a background story and sets a scene

through his images. Everything is manipulated so it sets a scene

which is quite clear on what the meaning is behind the

photograph, without there visually being any words. Through this

being what I am trying to investigate, one theorist John Berger

comes into mind as his photographs were a visual language which

transcended into words. A quote which he said really concludes what I hope to find within my

investigation. “We never just look at one thing; we are always looking at the relations between

things and ourselves”1 this shows me that the relationship between a viewer and an object must

change our understanding of the object itself. So, this then helps with what I am trying to get

through with my investigation. This links back to Coldwar Steve as he shows this through the photos

he produces. This method then fits into what my investigation, as I want to be able to express

meanings without having to have any words in place explaining what is happening. Even if the

background is humorous there's always a meaning to why the image was constructed like that and

that inspires me to take on board what he has done and initiate it into my own work.

The second photographer which fits into my investigation is Justin

Peters. Peters is very creative in what he does. Most of the work that

https://www.gradesaver.com/ways-of-seeing/study-guide/quotes
he has produced is something dreamlike but, in his mind, “‘2Everything you can imagine is real’” this

was a quote by Pablo Picasso and he states it’s a “quote I live by especially when creating my work,

which is inspired by the world around me and surreal painters,” . This shows where he gained his

inspiration from Pablo to be freer with the images and the ideas he comes up with.

The third photographer who I have been inspired by is Robert Jahns.

He is somewhat like Justin Peters but instead of his photos being of

the impossible dreamlike photographs, Jahns is more in city and

allows his photographs to be a lot more creative.

Through these photographers and what I want to discover how and

why they have manipulated a scene and how the contents of the

image tell a story. This is what I hope to achieve through investigating these photographers and the

different creative techniques they use.

Through Cold war Steve’s photo of ‘Raft of the twats’ this shows an entire scene which explains the

arguments over Brexit that was happening at the time. As each character which is included in the

photograph had a role in what was happening around the world. This helps with demonstrating the

theme of landscape manipulation through the politicians telling the story of the gist of the political

problems that were being faced at the time, this had then been incorporated through the image.

Therefore, this photograph shows what Brexit was seen to be through Cold War Steve’s eyes as it

shows how he thought and viewed everything that was happening. Through seeing photographs like

the ‘Raft of the twats’ shows me that landscape manipulation is not only just about editing its

changing something simple from it, to then allow it to have a bigger impact and new look to the

entire scene which has been created. This helps to ensure that there is a background story to the

images which you have created just like how Cold War Steve represented it. The thing which really

impacted me was the fact that he cropped and cut out images of the politicians themselves to help
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%20Picasso's,straight%20from%20the%20artist's%20imagination.
tell the story. This then allowed them to have different postures which made it easier and amusing

for the public to look at. Taking into account of the different ways that Coldwar Steve manipulated

his photographs has then allow me to think deeper into the meanings behind photographs and show

the meanings through different creative ways. Overall, the image of ‘raft of twats’ personally is seen

as a story in one photograph and a way of showing Coldwar Steves political views on major issues

like Brexit.

The second photographer is Justin Peters, through the image of showing the ‘traveller’ which is

above shows that there is a lot more which can be manipulated through showing something which is

a little bit “outside of the box”. So, from the ‘traveller’ photograph the photographer uses a range of

different colours which is very attracting to the eye of the viewer. But the main subject which he

tries to portray within his photography is surrealism. And clearly through the image of the turtle, as

it shows the surrealism through this as it would be dreamlike to even see a turtle flying through the

sky even the fact that it would ever be imagined as flying could be very abnormal. Through Justin

Peters photography and the photograph shows that the “impossible” is possible even if more people

wouldn’t think of that being something to even witness every day. The theme of landscape

manipulation would be seen from the photograph above as it is a normal scene of the beach and

then this would be the norm of what you would expect at a beach: the sea, the sand and the sky etc.

The fact that there is then a flying turtle coming or even directing itself to crash into the water is

where the manipulation then kicks in as Peters made sure that it was out of the ordinary and it

would be a manipulation which most people wouldn’t be able to forget when they see it. This then

plays with the person’s mind which then helps what kind of landscape manipulation that I hope to

achieve myself. As my aim is to then allow that manipulation to be stuck inside the persons head and

then allow them to think about the “impossible”. Through this, it has changed the way I look at

manipulation through the landscape as what I originally thought manipulation might be complex but

now it has made me think of it not being as complex, as simple things such as adding one more

feature to a “normalised” image can then allow the entire thing to be a completely new one with a
twist. With this image, with the turtle flying across the sky what I think of is wildlife underneath the

sea and how Peters may want us to just focus on that as it may show that the turtle was trying to

escape the waters, which we see today which is full of plastics and waste which is proving very

harmful for the sea creatures to live in, to find a place or in this case sea which is then not polluted

with waste to try and live in.

The third and final photographer who is Robert Jahns with his photograph of ‘gateway to a fantasy

world’ did help to just see the effects of the landscape manipulation but through the city. As his

main photography was done within the city and give a sense of manipulation through changing some

of the aspects to a city. Through this imagery of the city instead of having pathways and roads and

highstreets the city floor was just filled with glass, ice and snow. Personally, I think Jahns did this to

maybe show climate change and how it can then affect inner cities and if climate change worsens

then maybe this is what we would have to see on a daily basis as then it will become more colder

affecting different areas. Not only climate change but maybe pollution may take a role in what is

happening within the photograph as the causing of damage to the environment. This shows that

normally this would be quite rare to see within the city as most of the time this would not be the

case but through his work he allowed for people to see a “change” through somewhere they would

have thought of as their hometown and having not seen this type of weather in it does help the

viewers imagination run a bit wild trying to then imagine scenarios which they have never encounter

before. Through this, it helps to demonstrate the theme of landscape manipulation. It has helped me

realise to manipulate a photograph or scene what you can do is put in ideas which people have not

thought of before. Such as, with this idea of making the street floor ice it then challenges the viewers

mind with the thinking behind it and how that could come into play. As through just looking at the

photograph it helps and makes the viewer throw themselves into something which is considered

new to them. And then the feeling of being in a familiar place different in certain aspects it would

then give the overall feeling of change. With that being said, this helps with my own approach as the

manipulation of what I am trying to do should give the unfamiliar feeling to the settings around what
people are used to seeing on a day to day basis and give them something which is new and out of

the ordinary for them to really get a feel of the photograph and then allow them to experience

different sets of emotions with trying to get used to the setting. Slowly but surely allowing the

comfortableness to then creep in. The overall story of this idea would be the sense of change.

Through the entire new investigation of learning about the different techniques such as on

photoshop as all these photographers have enabled the photograph to look purely how they

imagined it which then helps to captivate the viewer more. To ensure that each basis of the

landscape manipulation is complete such as humour in manipulation, for this I think humour in the

photographs would then allow people to think about the image a lot more as if its humorous its

more likely that the image would linger in the viewers mind a lot more, city manipulation, and the

“impossible” seen as possible manipulation. All three of these aspects has helped to ensure to have

a mix of the ideas and photographic techniques which all of these photographers used to then

enable a greater effect and meaning behind all of what it's about and through that it would allow

more people to want to know more about it then allowing it to be more attractive to the eye. But in

conclusion each of these photographers have a very big improvement to the original thinking of how

landscape manipulation was all about and through the learning of how you can give the image a very

big background story even through it being humorous from Cold War Steve, to it being out of the

ordinary and allowing people to think of the most impossible things possible and then for the image

to make uneasy yet comfortable feelings for the viewers of the photographs shows that each and

every aspect would then be made accountable off. Not only that but then this ensures everything is

met from what people would want to see.

The final conclusion is that all of this personal investigation has made me realise the true meaning of

the landscape manipulation it can be from actually photo shopping the landscape to even just

putting one little piece of another photograph into the ordinary photograph which can help it be a

manipulation. And this has led me to realise and discover that there are more ways of being able to
manipulate and tell a story without writing no words and without it being too overly complex. Seeing

as this was never really discovered before and now that it has been this is the greatest thing that I

have learnt so far to not over work the manipulation as it can come from simple things as it is simple

and effective, instead of it being complex but yet not as effective as it is too complex for people to

understand why it has been photographed and put together in such a way.

Bibliography

https://petapixel.com/2018/07/11/these-photo-manipulations-take-you-into-a-dreamlike-world/

https://www.gradesaver.com/ways-of-seeing/study-guide/quotes

-John Berger theory

https://www.gradesaver.com/ways-of-seeing/study-guide/quotes
- John Berger quote
https://mymodernmet.com/surreal-digital-art-justin-peters/#:~:text=Inspired%20by%20Pablo
%20Picasso's,straight%20from%20the%20artist's%20imagination.
- Quote by Pablo Picasso